A new art installation located in the 400-foot rail underpass in DC’s NoMa neighborhood is the first of its kind in the area.
The K Street Virtual Gallery is a permanent outdoor art installation that features 12 high-lumen laser projections. They cast a series of images onto stone walls that flank the roadway between First and Second streets in Northeast DC.
The K Street Virtual Gallery, which opened April 19, “completes the trilogy” of bringing “parks and arts” to the NoMa neighborhood, says Maura Brophy, president and CEO of NoMa’s business development district and NoMa Parks Foundation. There are two other underpass art installations illuminate underpasses on M and L streets.
“Each of these underpasses has allowed [NoMa Parks Foundation] to transform the experience in them through light and color, and bring something to these bases for people to enjoy,” Brophy says.
Brophy says the idea is to make the underpasses more welcoming.
“What we hope to accomplish with each of these installations is to allow the spaces to connect the community,” she says.
At the K Street Virtual Gallery, an artist’s work is displayed for a few months until a new artist is selected. The inaugural exhibit is by artist My Ly, who owns My Ly Design, a business which focuses on architecture, interiors, and public arts. Brophy says My Ly was chosen due to her “extensive urban planning and placemaking experience.”
Ly’s pieces for K Street were inspired by underpass traffic and feature various shapes that move through the gallery based on a person’s or vehicle’s pace in the space.
“It’s an interpretive way to combine all the different ways in which people are traveling through this underpass in a way that is artistic and interesting aesthetically,” Brophy says.
Ly’s work will be on display through this summer. Future exhibits at the free installation will allow visitors to have an entirely different experience.
Feature image by Sam Kittner
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